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Title 



Imprint. 



THE 



BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 



EDMUND C. STEDMAN, 

ABMT CORRESPONDENT OP THE NEW YORK WORLD. 



*^ 



NEW YORK: 
RUDD & CARLETON, 130 GRAND STREET. 

M DCCC LXI. 



5*' 



Entered, acroiding to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by 

KUDD & CAELETON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 



^o2"l 



^O 



K. OBACaHBAD, 

Priuler, Siereoiyper, and Electrotyper. 

Carton Buirtiing, 

81, 83, and 85 Cenlre Slreft, 



RESURGAMUS. 

They say the battle has been lost — "What then ? 
There is no need of tears, and doleful strains : 
The holy Cause for which we fought remains, 

And millions of unconquerable men. 

Repulse may do us good, it should not harm ; 
Where work is to be done, 'tis well to know 
Its full extent ; before the final blow, 

Power, nerved to crush, must bare its strong right arm I 

Rebels, rejoice, then, while ye may ! for we, 
Driven back a moment, by the tide of war, 
Re-gathered, shall pour on ye from afar, 

As mighty and resistless as the Sea 1 

The battle is not lost, while men remain. 

Free men, and brave, like ours, to fight again I 

R. H. Stoddard 

New Tokk, July 22, 1861. 



INTRODUCTION 



The following letter is repiiblislied in this form, in order 
to supply a demand for it which had previously exhausted 
the large daily, semi-weekly, and weekly editions of the 
paper in which it appeared. The publishers desire to state 
that no amendments or additions have been made to the 
original copy, but that, even at the risk of repeating errors 
of detail, which must perforce have occurred in a descrip- 
tion written on the day after the battle, they have chosen 
to reprint it just as it came to '* The World^ fresh with the 
impressions left by the spectacle of the field. 

New Yore, August I, 18S1. 



•N. 



BATTLE OF BULL RUN 



(from TDK NEW YORK WORLD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1861.) 

Washington, Monday, July 21. 

At two o'clock this morning I arrived in Wash- 
ington, having witnessed the great conflict near Ma- 
nassas Junction from beginning to end, and the 
gigantic ront and panic which broke up the federal 
army at its close. I stayed near the action an hour 
or two later than my associates, in order to gather 
the final incidents of the day, and fully satisfy 
myself as to the nature and extent of the misfor- 
tune. 

And now in what order shall the event of yester- 
day be described? Even now how shall one pre- 
tend to give a synthetic narration of the whole bat- 
tle, based on the heterogeneous statements of a thou- 
sand men ; a battle whose arena was a tract miles 
in breadth and length, interspersed with hills and 
1 



10 THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 

forests; whose contending forces were divided into a 
dozen minor armies, continually interchanging their 
positions, and never all embraced within the cogni- 
zance of any spectator or participator. Even the gene- 
ral commanding the federal columns was ignorant, at 
the close, of the positions of the several corps ; was 
ignorant, at the beginning, of the topography of the 
dangerous territory on which he attacked an over- 
powering foe. Was either general of division better 
informed of the movements even of his own forces ? 
I doubt it. I only know that at sunset last evening, 
generals, colonels, and majors, were all retiring, 
devoid of their commands, no more respected or 
obeyed than the poorest private in the broken ranks. 
I know that a grand array, retreating before superior 
numbers, was never more disgracefully or needlessly 
disrupted, and blotted, as it were, out of existence in 
a single day. This is the truth, and why should it 
not be recorded? And why should I not tell the 
causes which produced this sad result? "Weeks will 
be required for the proper summing up of details. 
At present, for one, I acknowledge my inadequacy 
to describe more than the panorama which passed 
before my own eyes, and the result decided by the 
combination of this with much that was seen and 
done elsewhere. 

The affair of Thursday last was like a spectacle in 
an amphitheatre, visible in its oneness to all who 
were on the sides of that mountain valley. But 
those who were on yesterday's field now understand 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 11 

liow little of a great battle in a hilly region is known 
or seen by cutious lookers-on ; how much less by 
those actually engaged in its turmoil. But let me 
give the plan and commencement of the engagement 
on our side, the progress of that portion wliich was 
within my ken, and the truth in relation to the 
result. 

PJBOGKAMME OF THE ADVANCE. 

On Friday, the day succeeding our repulse at 
Bull Bun, Major Barnard, topographical engineer of 
the general staff, escorted by Co. B of the Second 
Cavalry regiment (under Lieut. Tompkins), made a 
wide reconnaissance of the country to the north, in 
order to examine the feasibility of turning the ene- 
my's rear by a strategic movement in that direction. 

A route was discovered by which it appeared that 
such a measure might be successfully executed. In 
a letter on the defences of Manassas Junction, I 
pointed out the different roads leading thitherward 
from Centre ville. One — the most direct — is that 
passing through Thursday's battle-field ; another, fur- 
ther north, leading, when produced, to Warrenton, 
beyond the Manassas Gap Kailroad, From the lat- 
ter, a minor road, branching off still more to the 
north, was found to open at a fork half-way between 
Centre ville and the Bull Run ravine. This road 
could be used for the rapid advance of men and 
artillery, preceded by a corps of sappers and miners. 



12 THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 

A plan was at otice projected by Gen. McDowell 
for a decisive attack upon the enemy's line of de- 
fence, to be made simultaneously b}' three advancing 
columns, from the several points of approach. The 
various division encampments were already advan- 
tageously located for the inception of such a move- 
ment, and orders were swiftly issued for the entire 
army to start at six o'clock on Saturday afternoon. It 
was afterwards discovered that our stock of heavy 
ammunition embraced no more than nineteen rounds 
to each gun, and that we must send to Fairfax for a 
better supply. It was also thought advisable to have 
the army arrive in sight of the enemy at sunrise, and 
the first orders were accordingly countermanded, 
and fresh ones issued, appointing two o'clock of the 
ensuing morning for the hour of leaving camp. 
Three days' rations were to be served out by the 
commissary, and the tents of each regiment to 
remain standing and under guard. 

In the moonlight of the stillest hour of the night 
our force of 36,000 men began to move, in pursuance 
of the following arrangement for the advance. On 
the left, or southernmost road, the gallant Colonel 
Richardson, be it remembered, had contiimed to 
hold the approach to the field where he fought so 
bravely on Thursday, his command consisting of the 
Fourth Brigade of Tyler's Division, viz. the Second 
and Third Michigan, the First Massachusetts, and 
the Twelfth New York regiments. It was rightly 
determined that these troops, if they fought at all, 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 13 

should be apportioned to ground of whicli they 
already had partial knowledge. Behind Richardson, 
and near Centreville, Col. Miles was to take uj) his 
position in reserve, with his entire First and Second 
Brigades. These included the Eighth (German 
Eifles) and Twenty-ninth New York regiments, the 
Garibaldi Guard and the Twenty-fourth Pennsylva- 
nia, the Sixteenth, Eighteenth, Thirty-first, and 
Thirty-second New York regiments, and the Com- 
pany G (Second Artillery) battery — the one lately 
brought from Fort Pickens. Thus Richardson could 
call to his support, if necessary, a reserve of 7,000 
men, in addition to the 4000 with which he was 
instructed to hold his position, to prevent the enemy 
from moving on Centreville past our left, hut not to 
make any attach. The centre, on the Warrenton 
road, commanded by Gen. Tyler, consisted of the 
First and Second Brigades of the Tyler Division, 
embracing the First and Second Ohio, and Second 
New York regiments, under Gen. Schenck, and the 
Sixty-ninth, Seventy-ninth and Thirteenth New York, 
and Second Wisconsin, under Col. Sherman. Car- 
lisle's, Rickett's, and Ayre's battery, accompanied 
this important column, which numbered 6000 men, 
and which was supported in the rear by the Third 
Tyler Brigade, under Col. Keyes, consisting of the 
First, Second, and Third Connecticut regiments, 
and the Fourth Maine, — a force of 3000, available 
at a moment's call. On the extreme right. Col. Hun- 
ter took the lead, with the two brigades of his divi- 



14: THE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 

sioi], viz. the Eighth and Fourteenth New York 
regiments under Col. Porter, with a battalion of the 
Second, Third, and Eighth Regular Infantry, a por- 
tion of the Second Cavalry, and the Fifth Artillery 
Battery, under Col. Burnside ; the First and Second 
Ohio, the Seventy-first New York, and two New 
Hampshire regiments, with the renowned Rhode 
Island Battery. After Hunter's followed Col. Heint- 
zelman's Division, including the Fourth and Fifth 
Massachusetts and the First Minnesota regiments, 
with a cavalry company and a battery, all under 
Col. Franklin, and the Second, Fourth, and Fifth 
Maine and Second Yermont regiment under Col. 
Howard. To about 14,000 men was thus intrusted 
the difficult and most essential labor of turning the 
enemy by a circuitous movement on the right, and 
these troops, as it eventuated, were to experience the 
larger part of the sanguinary fighting of the day. 

On the night preceding the battle Gen. Cameron 
visited the camp, reviewed the third Tyler brigade, 
passed a few hours with Gen. McDowell, and then 
left for "Washington, in spirits depressed by no pre- 
monition of the disaster which was to befal our 
arms, and the private grief which would add a 
deeper sorrow to the feelings he now experiences. 
After midnight a carriage was placed at Gen. Mc- 
Dowell's tent, which was to bear him to the scene of 
action. In order to be ready to move with the army 
I went down to the familiar quarters of Lieutenant 
Tompkins, whose company w^as attached to the 



THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. ^ 15 

General's escort, and there slept an liour while our 
horses ate the only forage they were to have for a 
day and a half. At two o'clock we were awakened; 
the army had commenced to move. 



THE MIDNIGHT MAKCH. 

There was moonlight, as I have said ; and no 
moonlight scene ever offered more varying themes 
to the genius of a great artist. Through the hazy 
valleys, and on hill-slopes, miles apart, were burning 
the fires at which forty regiments had prepared their 
midnight meal. In the vistas opening along a dozen 
lines of view, thousands of men were moving among 
the fitful beacons ; horses were harnessing to artillery, 
white army waggons were in motion with the ambu- 
lances — whose black covering, when one thought 
about it, seemed as appropriate as that of the coffin 
which accompanies a condemned man to the death 
before him. All was silent confusion and inter- 
mingling of moving horses and men. But forty 
thousand soldiers stir as quickly as a dozen, and in 
fifteen minutes from the commencement of the bustle 
every regiment had taken its place, ready to fall in 
to the division to which it was assigned. General 
McDowell and staff went in the centre of Tyler's, 
the central column. At 24 a.m. the last soldier had 
left the extended encampments, except those remain- 
ing behind on guard. 



16 '> THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 

The central line appeared to oflFer tbe best chances 
for a surv^ey of the impending action, and in default 
of any certain pre-knowledge, was accompanied by 
all non-participators whom interest or duty had drawn 
to the movement of the day. In order to obtain a 
full review of its moonlight march to the most mo- 
mentous effort of the campaign, I started at the ex- 
treme rear, and rapidly passed along to overtake the 
van of the column. For some way the central and 
right divisions were united, the latter forming off, as 
I have explained, about a mile beyond Centreville. 
So, leaving camp a mile below the village, I enjoyed 
the first spectacle of the day — a scene never to pass 
from the memory of those who saw it. Here were 
thousands of comrades-in-arms going forward to lay 
down their lives in a common cause. Here was all, 
and more than one had read of the solemn parapher- 
nalia of war. These were not the armies of the 
aliens to us, but, with the dress, tlie colors, the 
officers, of every regiment, we were so familiar that 
those of each had for us their own interest, and a 
different charm. We knew the men, their discipline, 
their respective heroes ; what corps were most relied 
on ; whose voice was to be that of Hector or Aga- 
memnon in the coming fray. How another day 
would change all this! How some long-vaunted 
battalions would perhaps lose their, as yet, unearned 
prestige, while accident or heroism should gild the 
s'tandards of many before undistinguished ! Then, 
as I followed along that procession of rumbling 



THE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 17 

cannon-carriages and caissons, standards and banners, 
the gleaming infantry, with their thousands of 
shining bayonets, and the mounted oflScers of every 
staff, what fine excitement was added to the occa- 
sion by the salutations and last assurances of the 
many comrades dearer than the rest ! The spirit of 
the soldiery was magnificent. They were all smart- 
ing under the reproach of Thursday, and longing for 
the opportunity to wipe it out. There was glowing 
rivalry between the men of difiereut States. " Old 
Massachusetts will not be ashamed of us to-night." 
" Wait till the Ohio boys get at them." " We'll fight 
for New York to-day," and a hundred similar utter- 
ances, were shouted from the different ranks. The 
officers were as glad of the task assigned them as 
their men. I rode a few moments with Lieut.-Col. 
Haggerty, of the Sixty-ninth. He mentioned the 
newspaper statement that he was killed at the former 
battle, and laughingly said that he felt very warlike 
for a dead man, and good for at least one battle 
more. This brave officer was almost the first victim 
of the day. The cheery voice of Meagher, late the 
Irish, now the American, patriot, rang out more 
heartily than ever. Then there were Corcoran, and 
Burnside, and Keyes, andSpeidel, and many another 
skilled and gallant officer, all pushing forward to the 
first fruition of their three months' patient prepara- 
tion. In the ranks of the Connecticut and other 
regiments, were old classmates and fellow-townsmen, 
with whom it was a privilege to exchange a word on 



18 THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 

this SO different occasion from any anticipated in 
those days when all the States were loyal, and the 
word " disunion " was a portion of an unknown 
tongue. 

General McDowell's carriage halted at the junc- 
tion of the two roads, a place most favorable for the 
quick reception of dispatches from all portions of the 
field. The column assigned to Colonel Hunter here 
divided from the main body and went on its unknown, 
perilous journey around the enemy's flank. 

A mile along — and by this time the white morning 
twilight gave us a clearer prospect than the fading 
radiance which had thus far illumed the march — we 
could look across an open country on the left to the 
farm-house, where we knew Colonel Richardson was 
stationed, and to the blood-stained valley beyond, 
whose upper reaches were now to be the arena of a 
larger conflict. But it was after sunrise when the 
van of General Tyler's column came to the edge of 
the wooded hill overlooking those reaches. The sun 
had risen as splendid as the sun of Austerlitz. Was 
it an auspicious omen for us, or for the foe ? "Who 
could foretell ? The scenery was too beautiful and 
full of nature's own peace, for one to believe in the 
possibility of the tumult and carnage jnst at hand, 
or that among those green oak forests lurked every 
engine of destruction which human contrivance has 
produced, with hosts of an enemy more dangerous 
and subtle than the wild beasts which had once here 
made their hiding-places. Then, too, it was Sunday 



THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 19 

morning. Even in the wilderness, the sacred day 
seems purer and more hushed than any other. It 
was ours to first jar upon the stiUness of the morning, 
and becloud the clearness of that serene atmosphere 
with the rude clangor of the avant messenger that 
heralded our challenge to a disloyal foe. 



THE BATTLE, 

From the point I mention, where the road slopes 
doMm to a protected ravine, we caught the first 
glimpse of the enemy. A line of infantry were 
drawn up across a meadow in the extreme distance, 
resting close upon woods behind them. We could see 
the reflection of their bayonets, and their regular dis- 
position showed them expectant of an attack. After 
a moment's inspection, General Tyler ordered Car- 
lisle to advance with his battery to the front, and 
here one could think of nothing but Milton's line : 

" Vanguard ! to right and left the front unfold." 

The ancient order for the disposition of advance 
ranks is still in military usage. For the second and 
third Tyler brigades under Schenck, were at once 
formed in line of battle, in the woods on either side 
— the First Ohio, Second Wisconsin, Seventy-ninth, 
Thirteenth, and Sixty-ninth 'New York Regiments, 
succeeding each other on the right, and the Second 



20 THE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 

Ohio, and Second New York being similarly placed 
on the left, while the artillery came down the road 
between. 

A great 32-pound rifled Parrot gun — the only one 
of its calibre in our field service — was brought for- 
ward, made to bear on the point where we had just 
seen the enemy (for the bayonets suddenly disap- 
peared in the woods behind), and a shell was fired 
at fifteen minutes past six a. m., which burst in the 
air ; but the report of the piece awoke the country, 
for leagues around, to a sense of what was to be the 
order of the day. The reverberation was tremen- 
dous, siiaking through the hills like the volley of a 
dozen plebeian cannon, and the roar of the revolving 
shell indescribable. Throughout the battle that gun, 
whenever it was fired, seemed to hush and over- 
power everything else. We waited a moment for 
an answering salute, but receiving none, sent the 
second shell at a hill-top, two miles off", where we 
suspected that a battery had been planted by the 
rebels. The bomb burst like an echo close at the 
intended point, but still no answer came, and Gen. 
Tyler ordered Carlisle to cease firing, and bring the 
rest of his battery to the front of the woods and our 
column, ready for instant action. It was now about 
seven o'clock. For half an hour but little more was 
done ; then skirmishers were deployed into the 
forest on each side, in order to discover the where- 
abouts of our nearest foes. Before us lay a rolling 
and comparatively open country, but with several 



THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 21 

hills and groves cutting off any extended view. In 
the western distance on the left we could see the 
outskirts of Manassas Junction. The woods at whose 
edge our line of battle formed, extended half around 
the open fields in a kind of semicircle, and it was 
into the arms of this crescent that our skirmishers 
advanced. Soon we began to hear random shots 
exchanged in the thicket on the left, which proved 
the existence of an enemy in that direction. (What 
can be done against men who, to all the science and 
discipline of European warfare, add more than the 
meanness and cowardly treachery of the Indian ? 
We had, all through the day, to hunt for the foe, 
though he numbered his myriads of men.) At the 
same time, a scout on the right captured a negro 
native, who was led to the General, shaking with 
fear, and anxious to impart such information as he 
had. Through him we learned that the rebels were 
quartered among the woods on the right and left, 
and in the groves in the open country ; that they had 
erected a battery on the distant hill, and had kept 
him at work for three days, assisting to fell trees, so 
that a clear range of the road we occupied could be 
obtained. 

By this time our scouts reported the enemy in 
some force on the left. Two or three Ohio skirmish- 
ers had been killed. Carlisle's battery was sent to 
the front of the woods on the right, where it could 
be brought to play where needed. A few shell were 
thrown into the opposite thicket, and then the 



22 THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 

Second Ohio and Second ISTew York marched down 
to rout out the enemy. In ten minutes their mus- 
ketry was heard, and then a heavy cannonade an- 
swer. They had, without doubt, fallen upon a bat- 
tery in the bushes. For a quarter of an hour their 
firing continued, when they came out in good order, 
confirming out surmises. After advancing a furlong 
they saw the enemy, who exchanged their fire and 
retired through the forest. Suddenly from a diflfer- 
ent direction a voice was heard, exclaiming, " Now, 
you Yankee devils, we've got you where we want 
you !" and several heavy guns were opened upon 
them with such efifect that Schenck finally ordered 
them to retire, which they did in perfect order. The 
boys came out indignant at the practices of the 
rebels, and swearing they would rather fight three 
times their force in the open field than encounter 
the deadly mystery of those thickets. Ko soldiers 
are willing to have their fighting entirely confined 
to storming infernal earthworks at the point of the 
bayonet. Every regiment, yesterday, was at times 
a " forlorn hope." 

A few dead and wounded began to be brought in, 
and the battle of Manassas had commenced. Car- 
lisle's howitzers and the great rifled gun were opened 
in the direction of the battery, which answered 
promptly, and a brief, but terrific, cannonading 
ensued. In less than half an hour the enemy's guns 
were silenced, two of Carlisle's howitzers advancing 
through the woods to gain a closer position. But a 



THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 23 

fatal error was here made, as I thought, by General 
Tyler, in not ordering in a division to drive out the 
four rebel regiments stationed behind the battery, 
and to seize its eight guns. Through some inexpli- 
cable fatuity he seemed to assume that when a bat- 
tery was silenced it was convinced, and there it 
remained, with its defenders, unheard .from and un- 
thought of until the latter portion of the day, when 
it formed one cause of our final defeat. It is actually 
a fact, that while our whole forces were pushed 
along the right to a co-operation with Hunter's 
flanking column, and a distance of miles in advance, 
this position on the left, close to the scene of the 
commencement of the fight, and just in front of all 
our trains and ammunition wagons — a position chosen 
by all spectators as the most secure — was, through the 
day, within five minutes' reach of a concealed force 
of infanti-y, and a battery which had only been 
" silenced." Xo force was stationed to guard the 
rear of our left flank. It was near this very point, and 
with the assistance of this very infantry, that the 
enemy's final charge was made, which created such 
irretrievable confusion and dismay. And after the 
first few hours no officer could be found in this vici- 
nity to pay any attention to its security. All had 
gone forward to follow the line of the contest. 

Meantime, Richardson, on the extreme left, could 
not content himself with "maintaining his position," 
for we heard occasional discharges from two of his 
guns. However, he took no other part in the action 



24 THE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 

than by shelling the forces of the enemy which were 
sent rapidly from his vicinity to the immediate point 
of contest. From the hill behind we could see long 
columns advancing, and at lirst thought they were 
Richardson's men moving on Bull Run ; but soon 
discovered their true character. Indeed, from every 
southward point the enemy's reinforcements began 
to pour in by thousands. Great clouds of dust arose 
from the distant roads. A person who ascended a 
lofty tree could see the continual arrival of cars at 
the nearest point on the Manassas Railroad, with 
hosts of soldiers, wdio formed in solid squares and 
moved swiftly forward to join in the contest. The 
whistle of the locomotive was plainly audible to those 
in our advance. It is believed that at least fifty 
thousand were added during the day to the thirty 
thousand rebels opposed to us at the onset. It was 
hard for our noble fellows to withstand these inces- 
sant reinforcements, but some of our regiments 
whipped several corps opposed to them in quick suc- 
cession, and whenever our forces^ fresh or tired, met 
tlie enemy in open field, they made short toorJc of 
his opposition. 

At lOj A.M. Hunter was heard from on the extreme 
right. He had previously sent a courier to General 
McDowell, reporting that he had safely crossed the 
Run. The general was lying on the ground, having 
been ill during the night, but at once mounted his 
horse and rode on to join the column on which so 
much depended. From the neighborhood of Sudley 



THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 25 

Church he saw the enemy's left in battle array, and 
jit ouce advanced upon them with the Fourteenth 
New York and a battalion of regular infantry— Co- 
lonel Hunter ordering up the stalwart Rhode Island 
regiments (one led by that model of the American 
volunteer, Burnside), the Second New Hampshire, 
and our own finely-disciplined Seventy-first. Gov. 
Sprague liimself directed the movements of the Rhode 
Island Brigade, and was conspicuous through the day 
for gallantry. Tlie enemy were found in heavy num- 
bers opposite this unexcelled division of our army, 
and greeted it with shell and long volleys of batta- 
lion firing as it advanced. But on it went, and a 
fierce conflict ensued in the northern battle ground. 
As soon as Hunter was thus discovered to be making 
his way on the flank Gen. Tyler sent forward the 
right wing of his column to co-operate, and a grand 
force was thus brought to bear most efi'ectually on 
the enemy's left and centre. 

The famous Irish regiment, 1,600 strong, who 
have had so much of the hard digging to perform, 
claimed the honor of a share in the hard fighting, 
and led the van of Tyler's attack, followed by the 
Seventy-ninth (Highlanders) and Thirteenth New 
York, and Second Wisconsin. 

It was a brave sight — that rush of the Sixty-ninth 
into the death-struggle ! With such cheers as those 
which won the battles in the Peninsula, with a 
quick step at first, and then a double quick, and at 
last a run, they dashed forward and along the edge 
2 



Zb THE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 

of tlie extended forest. Coats and knapsacks were 
thrown to either side, that nothing might impede 
their work, but we knew that no guns would slip 
from the hands of those determined fellows, even if 
dying agonies were needed to close them with a 
firmer grasp. As the line swept along, Meagher 
galloped toward the head, crying " Come on, boys ! 
you've got your chance at last !" I have not since 
seen him, but hear that he fought magnificently, and 
is wounded. 

Tyler's forces thus moved forward for half a mile, 
describing quite one-fourth of a circle on the right, 
until they met a division of the enemy, and of course 
a battery of the enemy's most approved pattern. 

THE HEAT OF THE CONTEST. 

It was noon, and now the battle commenced in 
the fierceness of its most extended fury. The bat- 
teries on the distant hill began to play upon our 
own, and upon our advancing troops, with hot and 
thunderous eftect. Carlisle answered for us, and 
Sherman for Hunter's Division, while the great 
32-pounder addressed itself resistlessly to the alter- 
nate defences of the foe. The noise of the cannon- 
ading was deafening and continuous. Conversely 
to the circumstance of the former engagement, it 
completely drowned, at this period, the volleys 
of the musketry and riflemen. It blanched the 
cheeks of the villagers at Centreville, to the main 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 27 

street of which place some of the enemy's rifled 
shell were thrown. It was heard at Fairfax, at 
Alexandria, at Washington itself. Five or six 
heavy batteries were in operation at once, and to 
their clamor was added the lesser roll of twenty 
thousand small-arms. What could we civilians see 
of the fight at this time ? Little : yet perhaps more 
than any who were engaged in it. How anxiously 
we strained our eyes to catch the various move- 
ments, thoughtless of everything but the spectacle, 
and the successes or reverses of the federal army. 
Our infantry were engaged in woods and meadows 
beyond our view. We knew not the nature or posi- 
tion of the force they were fighting. But now and 
then there would be a fierce rush into the open 
prospect, a gallant charge on one side and a retreat 
on the other, and w*e saw plainly that our columns 
were gaining ground, and steadily pursuing their 
advantage by their gradual movement which con- 
tinued toward the distance and the enemy's centre. 

We indeed heard continuous tidings of heroism 
and victory ; and those in the trees above us told 
us of morfi than we could discover with our field 
glasses from below. We heard that Hunter had 
fairly rounded the enemy's flank, and then we 
listened for ourselves to the sound of his charges 
in the northern woods, and saw for ourselves the 
air gathering up smoke from their branches, and 
the wavering column of the JVlississippians as they 
fled from their first battery and were forced into 



28 THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 

the open field. Then we saw our own Sixty-ninth 
and Seventy-ninth, corps animated by a chivalrons 
national rivalry, press on to the support of the 
more distant column. We could catch glimpses of 
the continual advances and retreats ; could hear 
occasionally the guns of a battery before undis- 
covered ; could guess how terribly all this accumu- 
lation of death upon death must tell upon those 
nndaunted men, but could also see — and our cheers 
continually followed the knowledge — that our forces 
were gradually driving the right of the enemy 
around the second quarter of a circle, until by one 
o'clock the main battle was raging at a point almost 
directly opposite our standing-place — the road at the 
edge of the woods — where it had commenced six 
hours before. 

There was a hill at the distance of a mile and a 
half to which I have heretofore alluded. From its 
height overlooking the whole plain, a few shell had 
reached us early in the day, and as it was nearer 
the Manassas road than almost any other portion of 
the field, more of the enemy's reinforcements ga- 
thered about its ridge than to the aid of the beaten 
rebels in the woods and valleys. Here there was an 
open battery, and long lines of infantry in support, 
ready, for a Avonder, to let our wearied fellows see 
the fresh forces they had, to conquer. 

As the Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth wound 
round the meadows to the north of this hill, and 
began to cross the road apparently with the inten- 



TIIE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 29 

tion of scaling it, we saw a column coming down 
from tlie farthest perspective, and for a moment 
believed it to be a portion of Hunter's Division, and 
that it had succeeded in completely turning the 
enemy's rear. A wild shout rose from us all. But 
soon the look-outs saw that the ensigns bore secession 
banners, and we knew that Johnson, or some other 
rebel general, was leading a horde of fresh troops 
against our united right and centre. It was time 
for more regiments to be sent forward, and Keyes 
was ordered to advance with the First Tyler Brigade. 
The three Connecticut regiments and the Fourth 
Maine came on with a will ; the First Connecticut 
was posted in reserve, and the other three corps 
swept up the field, by the ford on the right, to aid 
the struggling advance. 

All eyes were now directed to the distant hill-top, 
now the centre of the fight. All could see the ene- 
my's infantry ranging darkly against the sky beyond, 
and the first lines of our men moving with fine 
determination up the steep slope. The cannonading 
upon our advance, the struggle upon the hill-top, 
the interchange of position between the contestants, 
were watched by us, and as new forces rushed in upon 
the enemy's side the scene was repeated over and 
over again. It must have been here, I think, that 
the Sixty-ninth took and lost a battery eight times 
in succession, and finally were compelled, totally 
exhausted, to resign the completion of their work to 
the Connecticut regiments which had just come up. 



30 THE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 

The Third Connecticut finally carried that summit, 
unfurled the stars and stripes above it, and paused 
from the fight to cheer for the Union cause. 

Then the battle began to work down the hill, the 
returning half of the circle which the enemy, driven 
before the desperate charges of our troops, described 
during the day, until the very point where Tyler's 
advance commenced the action. Down the hill, and 
into the valley thickets on the left, the Zouaves, the 
Connecticut and New York regiments, with the 
unconquerable Khode Islanders, drove the continu- 
ally enlarging but always vanquished columns of 
the enemy. It was only to meet more batteries, 
earthwork succeeding earthwork, ambuscade after 
ambuscade. Our fellows were hot and weary ; most 
had drunk no water during hours of dust, and smoke, 
and insufi'erable heat. ]^o one knows what choking 
the battle atmosphere produces in a few moments, 
until he has personally experienced it. And so the 
conflict lulled for a little while. It was the middle 
of a blazing afternoon. Our regiments held the 
positions they had won, but the enemy kept receiv- 
ing additions, and continued a flank movement 
toward our left — a dangerous movement for us, a 
movement which those in the rear perceived, and 
vainly endeavored to induce some general oflicer to 
guard against. 

Here was the grand hlunder^ or misfortune^ of the 
'battle. A misfortune, that we had no troops in 
reserve after the Ohio regiments were again sent 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KITN. 31 

forward, this time to assist in building a bridge 
across the run on the Warrenton road, by the side 
of the stone bridge known to be mined. A blunder, 
in that the last reserve was sent forward at all. It 
should have been retained to guard the rear of the 
left, and every other regiment on the field should 
have been promptly recalled over the route by which 
it had advanced, and ordered only to maintain such 
positions as rested on a supported, continuous line. 
Gen. Scott says, to'day, that our troops had accom- 
plished three -days' work, and should have rested 
long before. But McDowell tried to vanquish the 
South in a single struggle, and the sad result is 
before us. 

As it was, Capt. Alexander, with his Sappers and 
Miners, was ordered to cut through the abattis by 
the side of the mined bridge, in the valley directly 
before us, and lay pontoons across the stream. Car- 
lisle's Artillery was detailed to protect the work, and 
the Ohio and Wisconsin reserve to support the artil- 
lery. Meanwhile, in the lulb; which I have men- 
tioned, the thousand heroic details of federal valor 
and the shamelessness of rebel treachery began to 
reach our ears. We learned the loss of the brave 
Cameron, the wounding of Heintzelman and Hun- 
ter, the fall of Ilaggerty, and Slocum, and Wilcox. 
We heard of the dash of the Irishmen and their 
decimation, and of the havoc made and sustained by 
the Ehode Islanders, the Highlanders, the Zouaves, 
and the Connecticut Third ; then of the intrepidity 



32 THE BATTLE OF BULL EUN. 

of Bnrnside and Sprague — liow the devoted and 
daring young governor led the regiments he had so 
mnnilicently equipped again and again to victorious 
charges, and at hast spiked, with liis own hands, the 
guns he could not cany away. The victory seemed 
ours. It was an hour sublinjc in unselfishness, and. 
ap})arent]y glorions in its results ! 

At this time, near four o'clock, I rode forward, 
through the open plain to the creek where the abattis 
was being assailed by our engineers. The Ohio, Con- 
necticut, and Minnesota regiments A^ere variously 
posted thereabout; others were in distant portions of 
the field ; all were completely exhausted and partly 
dissevered ; no general of division, except Tyler, 
could be found. Where were our officers? Where 
was the foe ? Who knew whether we had won or 
lost? 

The question was quickly to be decided for us. A 
sudden swoop, and a body of cavalry rushed down 
upon our columns near the bridge. They came from 
the woods on the left, and infantry poured out behind 
them. Tyler and his staff, with the reserve, were 
apparently cut off b}^ the quick raaneuvre. I suc- 
ceeded in gaining the position I had just left, there 
witnessed the capture of Carlisle's battery in the 
plain, and saw another force of cavalry and infantry 
pouring into the road at the very spot where the 
battle commenced, and near which the South Caro- 
linans, who manned the battery silenced in the morn- 
ing, had doubtless all day been lying concealed. 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 33 

The ambulances and wagons had gradually advanced 
to this spot, and of course an instantaneous confusion 
and dismay resulted. Our own infantry broke ranks 
in the field, plunged into the woods to avoid the 
road, got up the hill as best they could, without 
leaders, every man saving himself in his own wa}^ 



THE FLIGHT FROM THE FIELD. 

By the time I reached the top of the hill, the 
retreat, the panic, the hideous headlong confusion, 
were now beyond a hope. I was near the rear of 
the movement, with the brave Capt. Alexander, who 
endeavored by the most gallant but unavailable 
exertions to check the onward tumult. It was diffi- 
cult to believe in the realit}^ of our sudden reverse. 
"What does it all mean ?" I asked Alexander. " It 
means defeat," was his reply. " We are beaten ; it 
is a shameful, a cowardly retreat ! Hold up, men !" 
he shouted, " don't be such infernal cowards !" and 
he rode backwards and forwards, placing his horse 
across the road and vainly trying to rally the run- 
ning troops. The teams and wagons confused and 
disiiiembered every corps. We were now cut oflT 
from the advance body by the enemy's infantry, who 
had rushed on the slope just left by us, surrounded 
the guns and sutlers' wagons, and were apparently 
pressing up against us. " It's no use, Alexander," I 
said, " you must leave with the rest." " I'll be 
d — -d if I will," was his sullen reply, and the splen- 



34 THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 

did fellow rode back to make his way as best he 
conld. Meantime I saw officers with leaves and 
eagles on their shoulder-straps, majors and colonels, 
I who had deserted tlieir commands, pass me galloping 
as if for dear life. No enemy pursued just then ; 
but I suppose all were afraid that his guns would be 
trahied down the long, narrow avenue, and mow the 
retreating thousands, and batter to pieces army 
wagons and everything else which crowded it. 
Only one field officer, so far as my observation 
extended, seemed to have remembered his duty. 
Lieut-Col. Speidel, a foreigner attached to a Connecti- 
cut regiment, strove against the current for a league. 
I positively declare that, with the two exceptions 
mentioned, all efforts made to check the panic before 
Centre ville was reached, were confined to civilians. 
I saw a man in citizen's dress, who had thrown off 
his coat, seized a musket, and was trying to rally the 
soldiers who came by at the point of the bayonet. 
In a reply to a request for his name, he said it was 
Washburne, and I learned he was the member by 
that name from Illinois. The Hon. Mr. Kellogg 
made a similar effort. Both these Congressmen 
bravely stood their ground till the last moment,.and 
were serviceable at Centreville in assisting the halt 
there ultimately made. And other civilians did 
what Lhey could. 

But what a scene ! and how terrific the onset of 
that tumultuous retreat. For three miles^ hosts of 
federal troops — all detached from their regiments, all 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 35 

mingled in one disorderly rout — were fleeing along 
the road, but mostly through the lots on either side. 
Army wagons, sutlers' teams, and private carriages, 
choked the passage, tumbling against each other, 
amid clouds of dust, and sickening sights and sounds. 
Hacks, containing unlucky spectators of the late 
affray, were smashed like glass, and the occupants 
were lost sight of in the debris. Horses, flying 
wildly from the battle-field, many of them in death 
agony, galloped at random forward, joining in the 
stampede. Those on foot who could catch them rode 
them bare-back, as much to save themselves from 
being run over, as to make quicker time. Wounded 
men, lying along the banks — the few neither left on 
the field nor taken to the captured hospitals — ap- 
pealed with raised hands to those who rode horses, 
begging to be lifted behind, but few regarded such 
petitions. Then the artillery, such as was saved, 
came thundering along, smashing and overpowering 
everything. The regular cavalry, I record it to their 
shame, joined in the melee, adding to its terrors, for 
they rode down footmen without mercy. One of 
the great guns was overturned and lay amid the 
ruins of a caisson, as I passed it. I saw an artillery- 
man running between the ponderous fore and after- 
wheels of his gun-carriage, hanging on with both 
hands, and vainly striving to jump upon the ord- 
nance. The drivers were spurring the horses ; he 
could not cling much longer, and a more agonized 
expression never fixed the features of a drowning 



36 THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 

man. The carriage bounded from the roughness of 
a steep hill leading to a creek, he lost his hold, fell, 
and in an instant the great wheels had crushed the 
life out of him. Who ever saw such a flight ? Could 
the retreat at Borodino have exceeded it in confu- 
sion and tumult ? I think not. It did not slack in 
the least until Centreville was reached. There the 
sight of the reserve — Miles's Brigade — formed in 
order on the hill, seemed somewhat to reassure the 
van. But still the teams and foot soldiers pushed 
on, passing their own camps and heading swiftly for 
the distant Potomac, until for ten miles the road over 
which the grand army had so lately passed south- 
ward, gay with unstained banners, and flushed with 
surety of strength, was covered with the fragments 
of its retreating forces, shattered and panic-stricken 
in a single day. From the branch route the trains 
attached to Hunter's Division had caught the 
contagion of the flight, and poured into its already 
swollen current another turbid freshet of confusion 
and dismay. "Who ever saw a more shameful 
abandonment of munitions gathered at such vast 
expense? The teamsters, many of them, cut the 
traces of their horses, and galloped from the wagons. 
Others threw out their loads to accelerate their flight, 
and grain, picks, and shovels, and jDrovisions of every 
kind lay trampled in the dust for leagues. Thou- 
sands of muskets strewed the route, and when some 
of us succeeded in rallying a body of fugitives, and 
forming them in a line across the road, hardly one 



THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 37 

but had thrown away his arms. If the enemy had 
brought up his artillery and served it upon the re- 
treating train, or liad intercepted our progress with 
five hundred of his cavahy, he might have captured 
enough supplies for a week's feast of thanksgiving. As 
it was, enough was left behind to tell the story of the 
panic. The rout of the federal armj seemed complete; 

A CHECK TO THE EETEEAT. 

The sight of Miles's reserve drawn up on the hills 
at Centreville, supporting a full battery of field 
pieces, and the efforts of the few ofiicers still faithful 
to their trust, encouraged many of the fugitive infan- 
try to seek their old camps and go no farther. But 
the majority pushed on to a point near the late site 
of Germantown, where Lieut. Brisbane had formed 
a line of Hunt's artillerists across the road and re- 
pulsed all who attempted to break through. I par- 
ticularly request attention to the service thus ren- 
dered by this loyal young officei*. 

While he was thus engaged, a courier arrived with 
the news that Col. Montgomery was advancing with 
a New Jersey Brigade from Falls Church, and that 
the retreat must be stopped, only the wagons being 
allowed to pass through. Some thousands of the 
soldiery had already got far on their way to Wash- 
ington. Poor fellows ! who could blame them ? 
Their own colonels had deserted them, only leaving 
orders for them to reach Arlington Heights as soon 



3S THE BATTLE OF BULL KDN. 

as they could. A few miles further I met Montgo- 
mery swiftly pressing to the rescue, and reported the 
success of Lieut. Brisbane's efforts. And so I rode 
along, as well as my wearied horse could carry me, 
past groups of straggling fugitives, to Fairfax, where 
Col. Woodbury was expecting, and guarding against, 
a flank movement of the enemy, and on again to 
Long Bridge and the Potomac. But the van of the 
runaway soldiers had made such time that I found a 
host of them at the Jersey intrenchments begging 
the sentinels to allow them to cross the bridge. To- 
day we learn of the safe retreat of the main body of 
the army ; that they were feebly followed by the 
rebels as far as Fairfax, but are now within the Ar- 
lington lines, and that McDowell, a stunned and 
vanquished general, is overlooking the wreck of his 
columns from his old quarters at the Custis mansion. 



OUR LOSSES. 

The list of the killed and wounded in this wide- 
spread action will not be found proportionate to the 
numbers engaged on either side, and to the duration 
of the conflict. The nature of the ground, and the 
fact that the struggle was confined to attacks upon 
batteries and ambuscades, made the whole afiair a 
series of fiery skirmishes, rather than a grand field 
encounter. Men fought with a kind of American 
individuality — each for himself — and the musketry 
firing was of the most irregular character. There 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KUN. 39 

were few such heavy volleys as those which made 
the hills echo last Thursday. 

It would not be surprising if our entire loss in 
killed and wounded should prove to have been not 
over a thousand men. The rebels must have suffered 
twice as much from the terrific cannonading of our 
artillery in the forenoon, and from the desperate 
charges of the Zouaves, thfe Sixty-ninth, and the 
other corps which were especially distinguished in 
the engagement. The Zouaves captured two bat- 
teries, fought hand to hand with the Carolinians in 
a furious bowie-knife conflict, routed the famous 
Black Horse Cavalry, and only broke ranks when 
victory became hopeless. 

Nine-tenths of our killed and wounded were per- 
force left on the field, and in the hospitals at either 
end ; and as the enemy retains possession of the 
ground, we can get no accurate details of our losses. 
From prisoners taken by us we learned that the rebel 
leaders, determined to have no incumbrances on 
their hands, issued orders to give no quarter. It is 
positively known that many of our comrades were 
bayoneted where they fell. All the wounded 
Zouaves suffered this inhuman fate. 

Rickett's, Carlisle's, and the West Point batteries 
remain in the enemy's possession. Twenty-three of 
our guns, including the thirty-twopound siege pieces, 
were taken.* But Sherman, who went into action 

* Six of the twenty-three cannon were recovered the next day by 
Col. Einstein, the enemy having delayed moving them from the field. 



40 THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 

with six cannon, came out with eight — two of them 
dragged from the rebel embrasures. Large numbers 
of sutlers' and train wagons are probably cut off, 
and abandoned arms and munitions have fallen into 
the enemy's hands. At the date of this letter, it is 
uncertain whether any of our regiments which were 
intercepted at the time of the panic have surrendered 
themselves to the rebels ; but this must be the case 
with many of the infantry who, ignorant of the coun- 
try, starving and exhausted, dashed into the forests 
in their retreat. Every hour, however, is reducing 
our list of missing, as the stragglers reach their old 
camps along the Potomac. 

THEOEY OF THE DEFEAT. 

The disastrous result of the action w^as perhaps in- 
evitable — even though no panic had occurred at the 
close — from the three causes against which the no- 
blest soldiery can never successfully oppose their 
daring. First, the enemy's forces had been largely 
underrated, and nearly doubled our own in number ; 
second, the onus of the attack rested entirely upon 
us, and the natural and scientific defences of the 
rebels made their position almost impregnable ; 
third, many of our leaders displayed a lamentable 
want of military knowledge. There was Httle real 
generalship in the field. There was no one mind of 
the ISTapoleonic order, at once centralizing and com- 
prehending the entire movement of the day. There 



THE BATTLE OF BULL KIJN. 



41 



was no one to organize onr regiments in strong, 
swift-moving columns, and burl them powerfully 
against the foe. ]N"or were the generals of division 
more competent to their work. They exhibited per- 
sonal bravery, but advantages gained were not 
secured ; important points were abandoned as soon 
as carried ; and a reckless, fatiguing pursuit pre- 
ferred, until Beauregard and Davis, who commanded 
in person, led us on to positions thoroughly available 
for the attack of their final reinforcements. As for 
us, no one had thought of providing that reserve ab- 
solutely necessary to the sealing and completion of a 
battle's successes. It is the last conflict of the day 
that decides the victory and defeat. We had no 
cavalry to rout our retreating foe. Our artillery was 
not rendered efficient in the afternoon. Gen. Tyler 
neglected to guard his rear, and to check the pushing 
forward of his trains. As for the colonels, many of 
those who were not wounded or killed in the en- 
gagement exhibited not mei*ely inefficiency, but the 
pusillanimity which I have before recorded. To 
conclude : Before we can force our way through a 
country as well adapted for strategic defence as the 
fastnesses of the Piedmontese, the defiles of Switzer- 
land, or the almost unconquerable wilds in which 
Schamyl so long held the Russians at bay — before 
we can possess and advance beyond the scientific 
intrenchments with which the skill of disloyal offi- 
cers has made those Virginia forests so fearfully and 
mysteriously deathful to our patriotic soldiery, we 



4:2 THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 

must discover the executive leader whose genius 
shall oppose new modes of subduing a novel, and 
thus far successful method of warfare, and whose 
alert action shall carry his devices into resistless 
eifect. 



THE END. 



From Vanity Fair. 

ON THE LATE SACRILEGE IN VIRGINIA 

All men till now who bear the Christian name, 
However hard their hearts, and fierce their strife, 
Have satisfied their hate with taking life, 
The worst respecting death, through utter shame I 
Cowards now there be, whose murderous hands are red 
With our dead soldiers' blood ; not shed in fight,^ 
But crushed from their cold veins, when slain outright — 
Great God ! they dare to mutilate the dead I 
Virginia ! thou shalt pay for this ere long ; 

Thy lips shall drain to the dregs the bitter cup ; 
The outraged spirit of the North is up, 
Back to thy batteries, then, and make them strong I 
Henceforth thy blood shall be upon thy head. 
Though, unhke thee, we war not with the Dead ! 

R. H. Stoddard. 

Jxily 24th, 1861. 



